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Is There Really a Turkish 'Jihad' Against Alcohol?

No, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not waging a jihad on alcohol in Turkey. A response to Kadri Gursel.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BURAK AKINCI 
This photo taken on January 29, 2011, in Ankara, shows protesters drinking alcohol as they demonstrate against new laws banning alcohol sales in the Turkish capital and several Anatolian towns. Since 2002 the conservative ruling Justice and Development Party has brought many new bureaucratic hurdles to the sale of alcohol nationwide. Most recently, authorities in the province of Afyon tried to forbid alcohol completely but had to exlude "picnic" zones from the restriction

On May 23, fellow Al-Monitor writer Kadri Gursel had a nice piece crowned by a provocative headline: “AKP Wages Jihad Against Alcohol in Turkey.” The rest of the piece did not mention the j-word again, nor did it explain how it exactly fit the issue, but the title was enough to give an impression that Turkey's ruling party was leading an explicitly Islamic campaign against alcohol.

However, none other than the AKP leadership itself has explicitly denied that this was the case. Bulent Arinc, vice prime minister and second after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan within the AKP hierarchy, spoke to the press about the new alcohol regulations of his government, emphasizing:

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